We arrived at Lucho Suarez�s house at around 730pm after a nightmareishly long bus journey from Ica. We were greeted with huge hospitality such as offering to have his maid do our laundry, the instant key to our hearts on this trip! We were given some time to unpack and shower relax before meeting our guide for the following day. Vilko our guide is an interesting character as he has Croatian and German parentage, grew up in La Paz and Peru and went to boarding school in Bromsgrove! We arranged the next days itinerary over some delicious meats and pates and then Vilko took us to the local night spot for a beer. We ended up having a beer in Hooter�s, yes they exist in Peru too, and then wandering around for a while soaking up the atmostphere before bed.

The next day we were up in time to meet Vilko and our chauffeur Daniel at 930am. Thats right we had our own chauffeur! First stop was the Bolivar Hotel, Lima�s answer to the Ritz, for a quick look inside. We then walked to the Plaza de Armas and looked around the Cathedral. My favourite part about this was the subversive religious art produced by the indigineous people with with either anti-Spanish or Native religious conotations. From there it was a quick stop at the presidential sandwich joint for a local ham sandwich and some chicharollo, local maize soft drink tastes like cold mulled wine. Then we saw the congress and hit the next museum. Unfortunately by this time Rory was feeling really ill. We went around the museum which had an enormous collection of pre incan pottery. The highlight of which was the erotic pots, which ranged from amusing to disturbing! After all of which Rory decided he couldn�t really continue with the day so we had to take him back. Vilko, Daniel and I decided to still go to the last stop on the tour the Amano museum. This was a collection of pre-Incan and Incan textiles found and collected by a Japanese engineer in the desert. The textiles were absolutely unbelievable and the highlight of the day. The sheer complexity of the patterns and the vibrancy of the colours of these 1000year old cloths was beyond belief. In fact one was so tightly woven that even today there isn�t a machine in the world that could reproduce that many knots per square inch! It was also a brilliant opportunity to brush up on my Spanish conversing with Daniel, Vilko and the guide for the rest of the day!